Today is a special occasion.

Welcome.

My name is Amy. I love to make things: jewelry, crocheted scarves, baby blankets, dinner, a family. This journal is where I share my completed projects as well as works in progress. Practicing photography and writing about my everyday life keeps me focused on the present, which is a lovely place to be. Please join me anytime you’re so inclined.

May 2012

May 07, 2012

A few years ago, my sister-in-law planned a surprise birthday party for my brother-in-law at our house. While my husband took his younger brother out for beers, she snuck over to my kitchen and together with a friend we made roll after roll of homemade sushi. I decorated the windows with strings of paper cranes that I had folded here and there from the same stash of origami paper I've had for decades.

(In middle school I read a book about a young Japanese girl dying of luekemia after the atomic bomb attacks of World War II. She attempted to fold a thousand paper cranes. After her death, her classmates organized to create the Children's Peace Statue to honor her and other children who were victims of the Hiroshima bombing. The story resonated with me. I taught myself how to fold cranes, began collecting origami paper, and folded baskets upon baskets of the fragile birds.)

This week, I found the strings of decorative cranes and taped them up over our story corner in the boys room. They add more color to a room that is already bursting.

As I stepped carefully over board games, Legos, and toys to snap these photos, I realized how often my blog (unintentionally) perpetuates an idealized image of my life. I choose to focus on the positive in this space - you probably have enough negativity in your life without me adding a litany of gripes and complaints. But our home is rarely spotless and we are not perfect.

So I stepped back for a wider angle, to share a glimpse of real life here.

May 03, 2012

My youngest and I have long swaths of time together while we wait for his big brother to come home from school. We fill our time at the park, reading stories, running errands, and playing with friends. Even so, it's easy to get bogged down at home: there is always a chore to finish, a meal to prepare. So I made this simple activity jar to give us a few ideas of projects we can do together. Inside this empty candy tin are slips of paper with various suggestions for crafts, projects, and games.

I'm creating time for us together, but I'm also being sneaky in a mama sort of way: many of these suggestions focus on fine motor skill developments such as wooden puzzles, playing with tweezers or eye droppers, sidewalk chalk, tiny sticker art, and - of course - stringing beads.

This sweet, stubborn boy feels special to have his own list of choices we can do together. And it's special for me, too. I know this time is precious; while laundry and dishes and dinners will always be a constant in my life, an almost-four-year-old boy who says 'yuv' instead of 'love' and refuses to get a haircut will not.

So he sat on my lap, sorted through my collection of beads and diligently made himself a necklace. We spoke quitely, I stole kisses from his doughy cheeks, and bead by bead, we made something together.